Happy Endings
by Ceefax
Summary: What could have been and what was .


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Happy Endings

by Ceefax

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There are many universes.

There is a universe where Lisa Hallett is looking through estate agents' brochures with her boyfriend. They're planning on moving out of London to somewhere a bit greener. It'll be better for the baby. Ianto's making noises about going back to Wales, but Lisa's holding out for the peak district.

They met at a gig in Camden. Her sister's band had been playing. Neither of them has ever heard of Torchwood.

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There is a universe where Geraint Williams is enthusiastically telling his new nursery-school teacher all about his family, as illustrated by the blobby stick-figures he has painted on his sheet of beige sugar-paper.

There are six figures. He's already told her about his maternal grandfather, after whom he was named.

"And these are your mum and dad, are they?" she asks, pointing at the two central figures. One of them is wearing black and white, with exaggerated sergeant's stripes at each shoulder. "Is your dad a policeman, then?"

"No," he says, his voice filled with juvenile scorn, "me _mam's_ a policeman."

* * *

There is a universe where, six months or so after her mother dies, one of her teachers takes Suzie Costello aside for a little chat. As an outcome of this little chat, not two days later, Suzie is taken into care. Within a few months, she is placed with a foster family. Within a year, they have adopted her.

When she's twenty one, a letter reaches her from her father. She reads it, then rips it up into tiny pieces, lights one of the scented candles she got for her birthday, and feeds the tiny pieces into the flame, one by one. She never has any form of contact with him ever again, and she doesn't regret it one bit.

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There is a universe where Toshiko Sato is waiting at St Pancras station for her brother's train to arrive.

She catches sight of him in the crowd making their way through the turnstiles, and waves. Burdened with baggage, he grins back. Once he's successfully navigated the bottleneck, he hands her one of his bags and they share a one-armed hug.

As they leave the station and head towards her car, they refine the details of the deal that has been negotiated via text messages during the journey. They slip easily into the mix of Japanese and English that they have used with one another since they were children.

He, as a poverty-stricken student, cannot afford to buy a gift for their parents' forthcoming wedding anniversary. However, he _has_ offered to undertake all shopping duties for both their presents, and for the party she's organising, providing she supplies the funds.

A few days ago, one of her colleagues from the MoD research facility went missing, along with some top secret documents; but right now she's happy to see her brother, and excited about the party, and the troubles at work have quite escaped her mind.

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There is a universe where a vast flock of pteranodon are soaring through the cretaceous sky. They swoop past a jagged shoreline, calling out to each other, beating their thin, powerful wings.

One of them breaks from the flock, sensing an oddness in the air. A few others also become aware of it, but they turn and screech out in fear. The flock wheels away, save for one. Curious, she flies closer.

But before she can reach it, a bright silver flash catches her eye, and the oddness in the air is forgotten. She lifts one wing, lowers the other, and dives away from the oddness towards the wide mouth of a river, angling back the tips of her wings to perfectly control her velocity.

She takes the fish out of the water with barely a splash, and beats her wings hard to gain altitude as she gulps it down. The cries of her flock guide her back to them, and behind her, quite forgotten, the rift in time and space quietly closes again.

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There is a universe where a time agent who never went by the name of Captain Jack Harkness takes unofficial leave of the agency, along with his partner, and sets out to rescue his little brother. It takes them (from their point of view) many years, they have a great number of adventures along the way, and each gain some sexy new scars and experiences.

Eventually, they succeed. They trace Gray's timeline, follow him back through the years of horror and terror and abuse, right back to the beach where his brother let go of his hand. They scoop him up off that beach, and carry him away to safety.

The time agency catches them. There is talk of wiping both their memories and dumping Gray back where he had been found to be captured all over again, but in the end they are permitted to reinsert him into the timeline after the attack is over.

They watch, hand in hand, safely hidden, as Gray runs into the waiting, tearful embrace of his mother and brother. They exchange relieved smiles, then return to a changed future.

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There is a universe where Dr Owen Harper and Dr Katie Russell are married, although they have to delay the ceremony because of Katie's sudden illness. There were a terrifying few weeks where no-one could work out what on earth was wrong, but thankfully the fastest growing tumour known to medical science was successfully removed from Katie's brain. The condition might even end up being named after her.

Owen thinks she looks adorable with short hair, and is trying to persuade her not to grow it out again.

They keep the wedding small. The cake is single-tiered with two chunky marzipan figures on top, each with a white coat and stethoscope. Owen doesn't invite his mother, on the grounds that they've had quite enough stress for one wedding.

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There is another universe where Katie Russell dies, her brain destroyed by the alien creature that had invaded her body. Owen grieves for her, and manages to fall in with an odd little organisation run by an ex-time agent. There he meets Toshiko Sato.

After any number of false starts, she finally succeeds in asking him out on a date. He agrees, not quite knowing why, and surprisingly, they manage to have rather a good time.

A few months down the line, they start to discuss moving in together. Tosh introduces him to her family. He spends the whole visit concentrating very hard on not saying 'fuck'.

On one occasion, they have a sort-of-double-date with Jack and Ianto, which ends rather badly. "Torchwood night out," Jack says, with a rueful smile and a shrug. "Let's get this in the cells, then go get pizza."

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There is yet another universe where Owen and Tosh never quite get it together until it's too late. Owen dies, and although he dies in a really quite heroic way, he's not very happy about it. He's even less happy when Jack brings him back to unlife.

But within a few weeks, he starts to resign himself to the idea. He's got some cool new undead powers, which... Well, they don't make up for anything, really, but it's better than nothing. And there aren't many corpses that get to put their own affairs in order. There are a few things here and there that he's very grateful for the opportunity to get rid of before the team start packing his life away into storage.

Then, just as he's getting used to the fact that he could very well be around indefinitely, he dies. Again.

Again, it's in a heroic sort of way, saving the whole city this time. Having experienced unlife, he's now a little more ready to go. And besides, he was really running out of ways to fill the time.

So that was a happy ending, too. Of a sort.

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the end

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End file.
